Love Never Dies.
by Silver Wolf2
Summary: Another one, focusing on one character. This time it's Solid Snake;my favourite character. I intend on doing some more like this with other characters too. Updated with new chapter on the alternate ending.
1. Love Never Dies.

Who says that in every movie or story the hero walks away into the sunset with his lady? It's nice yes, because the evil has been destroyed and it seems right for the ending to be all smiles. But that's really old hat and in my opinion, it's rather clichéd, though I do enjoy happy endings as much as the next person does. But I do find that the films, books and games which, I have found memorable, have had lots of action and happy occasions in the main part and end in tragedy.  
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a miserable person! I suppose one way to explain this fic and my previous one, is to explore the themes in them, and examine my views on them, in a creative way.   
Anyway, this fanfic is considerably shorter than my last one, so I hope you enjoy it. I'm just nervous about whether I've made as good a job of it as my last one!  
  
Disclaimer: the characters and such in this fanfic are not mine, and are the property of Konami and their creator, Mr.Kojima.   
  
  
Love Never Dies.  
  
  
"This time I hope he's finished... for good." Snake thought to himself with a sigh of relief. He stood there for a moment or two, bent over in exhaustion; beat up from the last couple of fights with his brother, and his equal, with his hands on his knees. Snake shook his head to get rid of the dizzy feeling from Liquid's punches and get over the bizarre situation he'd been in. Fighting somebody who is like a negative copy of yourself doesn't happen every day. He looked up. One thought occupied his mind, blotting out the aches and the stinging from his cuts and bruises.  
"Meryl..." he thought. "Gotta see if she's okay..." Snake stood up tall and wiped the sweat off of his face with his forearm, only for it to return just as quickly. He climbed down to where Meryl lay and jogged over to her, as quickly as his battered body would allow him.  
"Meryl?" Called Snake. He quickly knelt down next to her and began to untie the bindings around her wrists. Snake rolled her onto her back and slipped his arms underneath her to lift her up and lean her against his knee.  
"What a mess." Snake thought looking at the reddened bandages wrapped round her gunshot wounds, a reminder to Snake of how he'd first lost her. Snake couldn't begin to imagine what that bastard Ocelot had done to her while she was captured; he didn't really want to either.   
He brushed her red hair out of her eyes affectionately. Snake remembered how her pretty eyes had given away her identity when he first called her on the Codec.  
"C'mon, wake up Meryl. This should be easy compared to all of the other things you've been through." Snake said in his head, waiting expectantly for her to come round. He gently shook her.  
Meryl's head rolled limply over to one side. Snake stopped, not believing what he had just seen, noticing now that she was cold and completely motionless in his arms.   
...Meryl?" Snake called again. The hope in his voice had faded away. He could feel the heavy, hollow feeling deep inside of him grow and his throat tied itself in a knot. Snake couldn't feel anything. His mind was blank. Cold and hot anger rose up in a tide all over him.  
"This isn't... It can't be... No!!" Snake thought over the chaos of a million thoughts and feelings flying around randomly in his head. "I never fail!! Never!!" he thought angrily. The leaden feeling grew.   
Empty.  
Snake could feel his heart sink down. The wave of anger returned again, much stronger and violent. Snake didn't want to accept it, he couldn't. He didn't know what else to do. What could he do? The training and all of the fighting he'd seen as a young soldier hadn't prepared him for this kind of death. Snake held Meryl closer to him.   
"MERYYYYYYYLLLL!!" Snake yelled out loud, throwing his head back.  
His cry echoed in the empty arena, well after he had stopped. To begin with he felt better, but now guilt came crashing down on him. Snake felt his throat tighten up again. He couldn't say anything; the words stuck and wouldn't come out. The deep void reached down into the pit of his stomach, the realisation of her death made him feel queasy, and his head spun, still full of jumbled words, pictures and moods. Snake put Meryl down gently, and let his head fall back down. He looked down at her and closed his eyes.   
"Why?" he thought. "Why does it always happen to me? What have I done?! " Snake carried on, turning it over and over in his mind.   
He remembered; back to when he'd been captured. All of the pain... he'd given up to Ocelot's torture...  
"I failed... It was my fault." Snake thought reluctantly. Once again his mind was vacant. Snake could only remember those words Ocelot had said to him before letting him be dragged back to the cell;  
"I hope you can still look at yourself in the mirror my friend."   
Even if Snake tried right now, he imagined that the mirror would be in pieces, out of disgrace at him.   
He opened his eyes and saw Meryl again.  
"Meryl died because of me..." he thought pathetically. Snake mustered up the strength to say what he wanted out loud.  
"...Forgive me." Snake gently said in a low voice. It wasn't good enough though. Saying that he was sorry wouldn't let the anguish or the resentment go away, it wouldn't bring her back. The familiar feeling of rage came back with force. Snake couldn't keep it hoarded up simmering away inside of him. He raised his fist and brought it crashing down onto the metal underneath him with a loud metallic clash.  
"Damn!"  
Snake hung his head away from Meryl, rested his other arm on his knee and supported himself on his right arm where he'd hit REX. His hand throbbed from hitting the cold metal. Snake shuddered in bitterness.  
"I gave into my fear!" he began in a rough voice, trying to make sense of everything that buzzed inside his head. He couldn't bring himself to look at her. Snake didn't want her to see him feeling so miserable and looking so broken. He paused, trying to search for the words and pick them out from the rest, all vying for his attention.  
"I gave into my pain!" Snake said his voice louder this time. "I sold your life to save my own..." he growled. Snake continued to put himself through this ordeal, blaming himself solely for Meryl's death.  
"I promised that I'd protect you!" he thought and then said out loud as an afterthought. "I'm a loser."  
Snake remembered how Meryl had described him as a hero. Otacon, even Sniper Wolf, they'd all compared him to heroes. He didn't feel like one right now. Snake might have saved the world and completed the mission he'd been sent on, but he had failed in his own one. This was the reality of it and not like on films where the hero always rescues the girl and they go off into the sunset to whatever happy life that followed.  
"I'm not the hero you thought I was!" Snake shouted out, his voice beginning to go as he choked back his heartache. He threw his head back again.  
"...I'm nothing!!!" Snake roared trying to dispel all of the legends that there were about him. Right now Snake didn't feel like the man who made the impossible possible; a phrase used so much to describe his incredible feats. Snake could defeat such petrifying killing machines like Metal Gear REX and had done so twice before, but he couldn't save the woman he loved.   
"If I ever meet the guy who said that love conquers all... " Snake thought bitterly.   
He tried to calm down and let his hazy mind clear. But one thing that wasn't going to clear for years was his conscience. He'd suffered enough after he'd killed Grey Fox, in Zanzibar and the revelation that Big Boss had presented him with.  
"Maybe Raven was right... I might never find any peace." Snake thought wretchedly. He looked at Meryl. She'd tried so hard to be something that she just wasn't destined for, and even though she knew that it wasn't her, she'd carried on with a brave face, to be like her father and the heroes she admired.   
"I'm not one of them, that's for sure. How can I be anyone's hero if I fail myself, let alone all of the people I've made promises to?" Snake thought. He knew that there was no one there to answer the question, and could only say the same phrase he'd heard himself using a thousand times in the entire mission.  
"Meryl, I'm sorry! Forgive me!" he implored and lowered his head down again. It was as if those words were magic, and Snake heard the familiar sound of stealth camouflage being deactivated. He didn't look round, guessing that it was Otacon.  
"Meryl can't forgive anyone anymore." Otacon said calmly, an edge of sympathy in his voice. Snake looked up and round at him out of the corner of his eye. He was surprised that Otacon had appeared; at least there was someone left he could trust.  
"Otacon?" Snake said weakly before looking away again. He closed his eyes so Otacon couldn't see the kind of pain he was in. But, Snake knew that from where Hal stood, the way he was slumped down on his knees battered and bruised at Meryl's side said it all.   
"She's gone, Snake..." Otacon said gently trying not to cause an unexpected reaction in Snake.  
"...Because of me..." Snake said his voice a little stronger; trying to disguise what was going on inside his mind. But it was still clear from those words that Snake was being really harsh on himself and suffering for it. Snake wouldn't have been surprised if he'd been there watching as the whole scene unfolded.  
Otacon, being scientifically minded, tried to put an explanation on why Snake was behaving the way he was. Snake wasn't sure why he was plaguing himself over her death, he didn't really care.  
"Look, Meryl died, and it was all my fault. There's nothing more that needs to be explained!" Snake thought.  
"I guess blaming yourself makes it easier, huh." Otacon began. "If you do that, you can keep the pain at a nice safe distance..." he continued. Snake knew that there was an element of truth in his words, and it was a pretty accurate summary, but Snake didn't really feel ready to admit it. Out of the serenity he'd fought to piece together, Snake felt ire beginning to bubble up again. Snake's head snapped up and round to look at Otacon.  
"What the hell do you know!?" he blurted furiously. "Meryl's dead!..." Snake said before looking away. "I lost!" he ended, his voice now barely there. Snake could see that Hal was unshaken by his outburst and returned back to pine over his self-pity.  
"Why don't you get it?" Snake thought angrily. "Maybe I should have let Ocelot kill me..." Snake thought piteously. "taken the pain for her instead..."   
"So..." Otacon began slowly. "are you gonna stay here and die...Along with her?" he said pausing to let Snake reflect on his words. There was a brief silence before Otacon began again trying to persuade Snake to start thinking reasonably again and untangle the shambles that was going on in his mind.  
"Snake... people die. But death is not defeat. That's what Hemingway said." Otacon said carefully trying to get on the same wavelength as Snake. Snake could see where this was going. He was after all, a soldier, in his genes and from his training. He was used to making sure that he achieved the objective and not ever failing. It seemed that Otacon understood Snake more than he had thought.   
Otacon took a breath and began to continue.   
"I lost Wolf too. But that wasn't defeat." He said finally. "She and I will be together forever." Otacon said with a ray of brightness in that last sentence. Snake felt a little embarrassed for accusing him of not knowing what it was like to lose someone you loved, but could see the sense in his words. Meryl might have left this world, and who knows, maybe now she was in a better place, but it didn't mean that her memory should have to fade or be looked back on with regret and sadness. Snake played some of Meryl's words back in his mind;  
"Don't forget me!"  
Snake looked up. "Together forever?" he said softly looking at Meryl lying down before him. It was then that Snake could see a little hope in the midst of all of the gloom.   
"It's true Wolf is dead. But our love didn't die along with her. We didn't loose anything." Otacon concluded. It was true; right up to the end Sniper Wolf had cared and loved Hal. The same for Otacon; he really didn't want them to fight and had tried a much as he could to make them stop fighting, because he loved her. Snake still looked at Meryl lying there in front of him.  
"Whatever you went through, I just hope that you remembered me." Snake thought in his head. It still worried him if her memories of him were good. He felt guilty for abandoning her when she got shot, but he couldn't have helped her; they might have both died. Snake shut his eyes and could see Meryl there. Maybe things weren't so bad.  
Snake was brought back to the present when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Otacon stood next to him.  
"Let's live Snake." He said gently. "There's a parking garage right next door. We can get to the surface from there. I've released all the security locks."  
Snake didn't move, didn't even blink. Otacon tried again to get through to him.  
" We can escape... It'll be okay. C'mon." Otacon continued offering Snake another shred of hope. "You have my word on it." He finished firmly. Snake was surprised at the evolution he'd witnessed in Otacon. He was no longer the scared, reclusive person who was frightened of his own shadow. Otacon had dealt with the death of the woman he loved, he watched her live her last few moments and be granted release and had finally come to be at peace with it. He was a much stronger person now, sure of himself in the world. In a way Snake admired him for that, for bringing him back to something which was more normal.   
"Otacon... you've changed." Snake said slowly.  
"I'm through regretting the past. Life isn't about loss you know." Otacon said strongly, reinforcing that he was indeed a new man. Even Otacon had his demons; Snake remembered Otacon telling him about his own family heritage and how his grandfather had been in the Manhattan Project to develop the first ever nuclear weapon. He and Snake were no different from each other in that respect. Both were not proud of their ancestry.  
They both stood there in quiet contemplation. Otacon was the only one to react when distant booms echoed in the distance. Snake continued to bury himself in his thoughts.  
"It's started..." Otacon announced. "Those guys, it seems that they only hurry when they're destroying things." He said sadly.   
"Good." Hal said defiantly. "Let 'em destroy it. But they can't destroy the human spirit."  
Snake had finally come to a decision. He wasn't going to stay here and dwell on the past.   
"I've done enough. The last time I spent six years alone in Alaska over something which couldn't be changed." He thought.  
"Okay." Snake said strongly. He got up and stood tall, beginning to return to his usual self. "Let's go."  
Snake looked back to Meryl. This time he wasn't filled up completely with guilt and regret when he saw her face.   
"Meryl... I hope you're till watching me..." Snake said softly. "Maybe I can prove myself to you after all..."   
Snake looked up and began to make the decent down the fallen metal behemoth that had been Metal Gear REX. Snake still ached all over, his limbs stiff and painful from the fight with his shadow. All the time the booming noise got louder and closer to the point where the ground was shaking. Snake waited impatiently for his less agile friend to climb down.  
"C'mon, hustle!" he said loudly, wanting to get away as quickly as possible before they were bombed. Metal Gear REX was precariously leaned against the wall, and if it got any worse, there was a real danger of it falling on top of them.  
"Snake it's cold outside. You'll freeze like that." Otacon said. Snake had completely forgotten that it was bitterly cold outside and he was stripped to the waist. He looked around and spotted his sneaking suit lying further away below REX.  
"My sneaking suit!" he exclaimed and began running towards where he could see it and crawled under the metal legs of REX.  
"You'd better hurry!" Otacon called, his voice sounding distant.  
Snake retrieved his sneaking suit and pulled it on, zipping it up to his neck before dashing off back to where Otacon stood.  
"Hurry!" called Otacon getting increasingly concerned with the explosions that rang out far above them.  
"Now you look more like yourself again." Hal said when Snake had returned and turned to run into the garage. Snake watched him go and turned around to look back to where Meryl lay on top of REX. He just wanted to look at her one last time, before abandoning her once again.  
Snake stood there and it seemed as if the world had been brought to a standstill for a moment. Her name was on his lips.   
"...Meryl..." Snake said softly.   
He waited, listening as it echoed in the room.  
Snake lowered his head, a faint smile on his face. Those words Meryl had said to him when she lay there bleeding after being shot, were brought back again;  
"Don't forget me!"  
He turned around slowly. Snake didn't want to go but he had to; dying here would only be accepting defeat. He began to run after Otacon, before falling concrete sealed it off to the world.  
Snake kept on running, not turning back.   
He had another mission to do; keep a promise he pledged that he would never break.  
  
• Silver Wolf •  
  
What am I trying to say with this fanfic? I suppose in this one, it got me thinking about what I would do if I were in Snake's position. The answer to that is I still don't know. It's one of those things I think you can't put any definite answer on until you are there and then you do something, which you would have never imagined. I like to think that when you die, you go somewhere else and see all the people you love and I guess that's a universal idea for all people, no matter what your religion. As a final note, I was going to leave this untitled, but I have to call it something. Even at the end I still find it hard to find a good title to sum up the story. Also in the original copy, I did do an illustration to it, but I didn't think it would be allowed here, so you can find the original on my homepage.   



	2. Love Never Dies; Brighter Reflection

To contrast with Love Never Dies, I've decided to write this and chapter it along side it. This is the ending where Meryl lives and I haven't changed the point of view because that would just make it confusing. It's been a long time since I wrote anything half-decent, since I got every writers bane; writer's block. That lasted for about two weeks and although I've had plenty of ideas, I couldn't realise them properly without them falling to pieces in the process and me getting annoyed at my brain which refused to return from it's break from anything creative. Hopefully I'm back on form with this fic and I hope you enjoy it.  
  
Disclaimer: the characters and such in this fanfic are not mine, and are the property of Konami and their creator, Mr.Kojima.   
  
  
Love Never Dies; Brighter Reflection.  
  
Snake turned around and took a few steps away from the edge where he'd knocked his brother off. He was stooped over, hands on his knees, exhausted, beaten up. His head thudded as if Liquid was still there punching him. Snake shook his head, ridding himself of the queasy feeling and to get over the creepy situation he'd been in, fighting his shadow. He hadn't enjoyed it one bit, but Snake had to fight Liquid to his death if he wanted to survive. Thing was, what did he do now? Snake looked up and the answer lay there in front of him. He forgot all about the pain, the aches in his body vanished, he didn't care about that.  
"Meryl..." he thought. He stood up tall and wiped a hand over his face getting rid of the sweat and blood which returned just as quickly again. It didn't concern Snake that he probably looked a mess, it was all worth it to save her. He walked to the edge and lowered himself down before climbing up to where Meryl lay as quickly as his worn out body would allow him.   
"Meryl?" he called and ran over to her. Snake knelt down, untied her wrists and lifted her up off the metal. He sighed at the bloody bandages wrapped around her gunshot wounds. Snake couldn't push the memories back into the dark corner of his mind and Meryl's screams when Wolf shot her, rang in his ears again. Snake was reminded of how he fought back only to be captured, glad that he'd escaped before Ocelot had tried anything else to make him concede defeat in his "game" and surrender Meryl's life. He didn't want to imagine what he'd done to Meryl while she was held prisoner. In a way Snake was thankful that his brother had not let Ocelot kill her, but apart from that, he still resented Liquid.  
Snake shook Meryl gently to bring her round.  
"C'mon wake up." He thought. "Meryl, I'm here now."  
Snake stopped, he watched Meryl, certain that she had moved. He shook her affectionately again. He waited. Meryl's eyelids began to waver as she battled to come round. Snake's heart leapt.  
"Meryl!?" he called not quite trusting his own eyes, that she was alive. Meryl wriggled around in his arms as she came out of unconsciousness and put a hand to her head.  
"Uhhh..." she mumbled. "Snake? Is that you? "   
Snake couldn't stop the smile that worked its way across his face. Meryl's eyes opened fully and they looked up at him, astonishment in them at first before they creased up in delight.  
"Snake!" she cried throwing her arms around his neck and Meryl pulled herself up closer to his body. "You're alive! Thank God!"  
Snake was taken aback by this. He was half expecting her to be upset with him for deserting her at the mercy of Sniper Wolf. He wasn't sure what to do; say something and reveal what he was holding back, do nothing... he wasn't sure, Snake had never felt this way before and had normally just locked it away before anybody noticed. But nobody was here to see or judge him, what did it matter what anybody thought? Snake returned her hug and wrapped his arms around her, held her close to make sure this wasn't a dream.   
Meryl sat back after a while still had her hands clasped behind his neck and Snake could take a good look at her. He couldn't get over his amazement. Meryl was alive, the woman he loved, the one person he was prepared to surrender so much for and here they were, right in his arms.  
"Meryl?" he began slowly. "Are you okay?"  
"Silly question to ask." He thought to himself, it was quite clear that Meryl was fine, but still he felt the need to ask jut to make sure that this precious moment of bliss wasn't going to end horribly. Meryl smiled.  
"Are you okay? Is that all you can say?" she laughed. Snake took that as meaning that she was all right.  
"Meryl, it must have been terrible..." Snake said gently, lowering his voice. Meryl looked down; the smile faded away but still she maintained that brightness in her voice when she awoke to Snake.  
"It wasn't that bad." She said hushed. "I didn't give into the torture." Meryl said proudly. Snake looked up and anger began to well up inside him but kept it in check not wishing to spoil the moment.   
"No point in raging over it now. I can't go back and change it ... anyway Meryl..." Snake thought dreamily before he snapped himself out of it, that habitual reaction came into play whenever he began to disclose what was going on inside him.  
"Torture?" he asked. Meryl nodded slowly and Snake could feel her sigh. Her voice became soft again.  
"...And things even worse than that..." Meryl continued. That made Snake boil and he could feel himself become hot with fury.  
"What could be worse than torture?" he thought. Snake didn't want to think about it but... still he couldn't cast aside the idea that Meryl could have been subject to things they'd just saved for her. The very thought made Snake sick but it made him all the more protective of her. He couldn't gauge how she felt, could only imagine and even then Snake had no idea, yet at the same time he was proud that she had come through it all and didn't hate him for leaving her behind. Meryl's voice struggled to take on the same brightness she'd spoken with before but she soldiered on regardless.  
"I was fighting too. Just like you." She managed after a while. Even though Snake felt deep empathy for her at that remark, his defences still filtered out his true feelings.  
"You're a strong woman." Snake commented softly.  
"C'mon! I know that I didn't mean that!" Snake thought irritated at himself for hiding his real feelings. Meryl sighed again.  
"Fighting them... made me feel closer to you." She began again. "I felt like you were there with me. It gave me the strength to go on."   
Snake was surprised that Meryl had somehow found something in him that gave her the inspiration to carry on. He'd never really thought of himself as the hero people so often made him out to be. He never felt like one; he was just doing his job. And his job description even his past weren't things Snake was terribly proud of.  
Meryl fought to summon up the strength to speak again.  
"But I was scared." She said finally. Once again, Snake shielded his thoughts and deep down he rebuked himself for being so reclusive.  
"I'm sorry." He said softly. Meryl looked up.  
"Don't say that." She said trying now to be the one who was being resilient.  
"But it made me realise something." Meryl continued and Snake saw her look back down at the metal underneath them.  
She took a breath before going on. Snake waited patiently, listening altruistically to hear what she had to say.  
"During all the pain and shame there was one thing that I was sure of. The single thought that brought me hope. And that hope kept me alive." Meryl said slowly pausing to search for the words that best reflected what was raging on inside of her.  
"Snake," Meryl began and she looked up at him into his eyes. He'd never heard that name said so tenderly, devoid of the fearfulness that it was often partnered with. Snake waited eagerly to hear what Meryl had to say to him.  
"I wanted to see you again..." Meryl finished. Snake sat back his mind blank for a second. At first he wasn't sure if this was just exhaustion playing tricks on him, but one look at Meryl told him her words were sincere. His mouth opened slightly in incredulity. He couldn't believe it. Nobody had said anything like that to him. Nobody had ever wanted to see him again unless they wanted to kill him or watch him suffer. Snake could feel the wall he'd built up start to fall away.  
"Meryl..." he began gently. He had known that Meryl had feelings for him but had no idea that they ran so deeply. It was this; the fact that he was the one thing that had kept her going in the face of unspeakable horrors which amazed him. He opened his mouth to say something but the bleep of his Codec shattered the silence and broke his thoughts.  
"Damn!" Snake thought angrily. "This had better be good..." and looked up to Meryl.  
"That's my Codec." He said awkwardly and Meryl let go of him so he could answer it. A familiar friendly voice greeted him.  
"Snake, it's me." Snake was happy to finally hear somebody who wasn't going to turn round and betray him. He smiled and couldn't wait to tell him the news.  
"Otacon, good news. Meryl's okay." Snake said and waited for his response.  
"All right!!!" cried Otacon and Snake winced, put a hand up to his ear. At least he could tell that he was pleased.  
"You saved her man. Good job!" Otacon finished calming down.  
"I got some bad news too. We're about to be bombed." Snake said slowly.  
"Oh boy. I guess we're considered expendable." Otacon noted sounding much more serious now. Snake for the time being dragged himself out of that comfortable dreamy world that he'd discovered with Meryl. All his efforts would be wasted if they couldn't escape and Snake focussed on that instead.  
"Is there a way out of here?" he asked.  
"A way out?" Otacon asked and there was a brief pause as Otacon worked out in his mind where they should go."...Uh, yeah. You can take the loading bay to the surface. There's a parking garage right next to you. The tunnel leads from there to the surface." He replied after a few seconds. Snake frowned as he tried to get his bearings from what little he knew about the base.  
"The door in front?" he asked.  
"No." Otacon corrected. "It's a small entrance to the west of that door."  
"How about security?" Snake asked. He just wanted to make sure that everything happened without a hitch, which could cost them their lives.  
"I just unlocked it. Who do you think you're talking to?" Otacon laughed and Snake remembered how Otacon's skills had more than once helped him out. "I'll take care of security along your escape route too..."  
Snake waited, wondering what Otacon was going to do about his own escape.  
"What are you going to do?" he asked.  
"Me?" Otacon said surprised. "I... I'll stay here." He said firmly.  
"Are you crazy!?" Snake shouted. Maybe the death of Wolf had affected him more than Snake had thought.  
"I need a little more time to take care of your escape route." Otacon explained. Snake couldn't believe that he was going out of his way just to make sure that he and Meryl got away. It was a big price to pay and Snake was reluctant to let Otacon stump up out of his own will just so Snake could continue on and have a happy life.  
"But..." Snake began about to make an attempt to talk him out of it. Otacon cut him off.  
"Unlocking the security doors is difficult work. Only I can do it." Otacon argued. As much as it made sense to have somebody who knew what they were doing than leaving it up to Snake who didn't have a clue and would probably waste valuable time for their escape, Snake still didn't want Otacon to risk his life to make sure they got away.  
"Otacon?" he asked.  
"Don't worry. I'm staying here. It's my own decision." He replied stubbornly.   
"Otacon," Snake began trying to get through to him again. "this is a hardened shelter but they're going to use a surface piercing nuclear bomb. It won't hold." He said hoping that the mention of a nuclear bomb would scare him into escaping.  
"I'm through regretting the past..." Otacon maintained. "Life isn't all about loss, y'know..." he answered finally. Snake couldn't say anything, it was clear that he wasn't going to be able to shift Otacon from his current standing.  
"Snake, I'm a complete person now. I've found a reason to live." Snake decided to give up and accepted that Otacon was like anybody else, allowed to make his own choices.  
"Good. Don't die on me." Snake said finally. Otacon smiled.  
"Same to you. Take care of Meryl, okay."   
"I will..." Of course he would, there was no way Snake could ever let anything like what happened a few hours ago. He and Meryl might not be so lucky.  
"Okay I gotta go. I promise I'll do something about your escape route." Otacon finished.   
"Thanks." Snake replied. Otacon stopped and kept the call open. He smiled again.  
" 'Thanks'..." he began. "Oh, that sounds nice."   
That had been another first for Snake too. He'd never really had the chance and hadn't really cared much before about the help people had given him, but this time well, he had to. If it weren't for Otacon a lot of things wouldn't have happened, and may just have resulted in Snake's own death. Snake had witnessed a change in Otacon. He wasn't the scared and shy man Snake had first found hiding in a locker with wet pants. Otacon had seen and been through just as much as him, maybe more. It had changed Otacon, and now he was willing to thank Snake for that, even though the change in him had been at times full of hurt.  
"...I believe in you." Snake said at last.  
"Thanks, Snake." And Otacon ended the call.   
Snake turned round to face Meryl with a sigh.   
"Let's get the hell out of here." He said. Meryl stopped him.  
"...What about him? Where's Otacon?" she asked.  
"He's..." Snake began not sure how to put into words what he thought Otacon was really doing apart from preparing their escape. "he's... fighting right now... With his old self. To be the man he wants to be." Snake said eventually, satisfied that he'd summed up Otacon's motives. It reminded him of that time when he'd walked away from Sniper Wolf's body and Otacon asked him what he was fighting for. He had Otacon's answer to that, but still Snake wasn't sure of his own purpose. Was it Meryl; was it the selfish thrill that Snake got from combat? He didn't know but it looked like that this time after he'd met Meryl, Snake had been fighting to make sure he would survive to see her again, to let her live.  
Meryl's eyes widened.  
"He's fighting for us too?" she asked, bewilderment in her voice. Snake nodded.  
"Yeah, and I don't want it to be in vain either." He added strongly.  
"...Me too."  
Snake turned round, peered over the edge, wondering how they were going to get down without falling. Through the smoke and darkness, he saw a couple of platforms jutting out of the fallen metal monster that was REX. Snake jumped off onto the first one and down onto the next one before dropping down onto the ground. He looked up back to where Meryl stood her head peeping over the edge. Snake took a step forward, held out his arms.  
"Meryl." He called and nodded down to his arms telling her that he'd catch her. Meryl grinned and unquestioningly leapt off, bringing her knees up to her chest and put her arms round them. She landed in his arms neatly and put her arms around him. The way she had thrown herself off without fear of Snake not catching her proved to him how much she trusted him. He'd saved her after all, kept the promise he'd made to her uncle that she'd return from the island alive, it reassured Snake that even though he had to leave her behind, Meryl still had faith in him.  
Snake looked into her eyes, smiling. The last of the wall he'd built up to keep his feelings trapped inside, and the ones of others out, crumbled.  
Snake still held Meryl in his arms and the hair on the back of his neck stood up as she ran her hand over his shoulder and across his chest, her touch so soft, barely there when her fingers traced over his wounds. It was different from Wolf's, Snake couldn't describe it, he was too wrapped up to think about much apart from basking in this moment. He heard Meryl say his name again. It sounded strange to hear it said without a pinch of dread or odium and it made him smile to hear it said so lovingly.  
"...Snake..." Meryl whispered.  
"Meryl." He answered holding her closer. Neither of them said anything for an age, waiting for the other to say or do something. Snake drew Meryl closer towards him again; he didn't want to hold back this time.   
A loud explosion from far above made them look up. Snake scowled in exasperation. It seemed that the government forces under Jim Houseman's command were in a hurry to eliminate everything on the island.  
"It's started..." he exclaimed.  
"I must be heavy..." Meryl smiled.   
"Not really." Snake thought. Instead, he smiled back.  
"It looks like we're not going to have a love scene after all." He joked.  
"Looks that way. Too bad." Meryl laughed and Snake bent down to let her down and stand up.  
"There'll be time for that later." Snake thought and began to make his way to the door just across the room from them.  
"Let's get out of here!" Snake shouted over the noise, anxious to get away from the wreck of Metal Gear propped perilously against the wall. The sound of metal as it groaned in protest worried him and he didn't want to hang around for much longer.   
"Snake, it's freezing outside. You need some clothes." Meryl said stopping him in his tracks. Snake looked down, he'd forgotten that he was only wearing his trousers and looked around for the rest of his sneaking suit. It lay just in front of REX a fair distance from where they stood.  
"There's my sneaking suit!" Snake exclaimed when he spotted it and dashed off to retrieve it.   
"Hurry up!" Meryl warned before she sprinted off towards the doorway to the garage. Snake crawled under the legs of REX and pulled on his top, zipping it up to the neck.  
"Hurry!" echoed Meryl' voice. She was getting edgy and dust could be seen falling from the ceiling far above. Snake ran back to where she stood. Meryl had found something to wear over her combat fatigues, a bright orange body warmer. She waited hands behind her back.  
"Mmmm... Looking good, Snake." She purred and ran off ahead of him. Snake ran after her.  
"I wonder... where's Liquid? He should have been there..." Snake thought as he followed Meryl. He stopped to find that concrete and metal had blocked off the doorway behind him. He paused for a moment. No it just wasn't possible. Liquid had to be dead.  
"Than again, he did say he wouldn't die as long as I live." Snake thought. He turned round and saw Meryl peering into the garage. He jogged on to meet her. There were more important things to think about than him; Liquid was yesterday's news now.  
  
• Silver Wolf •  
I know I usually put a comment at the end of my fanfics but well, I don't think I really have to say anything about this chapter. It pretty much speaks for itself really and doesn't need me to add a little extra comment.  



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